Deepdale member Stewart Hagestad makes Masters history

AUGUSTA, Ga.

It certainly was worth wondering how Stewart Hagestad could nearly sink a 185-yard eagle from the rough on Augusta National’s 18th hole.

Plus, it is logical to ask how he could make the Masters cut as the U.S. Mid-Amateur champion, something no one ever had done before.

Those just beg the real question, though: Why would a young, elite, enthusiastic golfer move from Southern California to New York City?

“Well, it was between work and a girl, and I’ll let you figure out the percentages,” Hagestad said Friday after making one of the shots of the day at the Masters and making history, too.

The 25-year-old financial analyst coyly withheld any details about his switch in coasts, which was fine. His surprising game was there for all to see. He shot 1-over-par 73, including a tap-in birdie at the last, to finish the second round at 3 over.

No way could anyone have predicted an amateur pulling off his 6-iron shot into No. 18 Friday. The ball landed behind the hole, checked up and rolled just past the edge of the cup. He received an ovation after his 1-foot kick-in. “I’m really happy it wasn’t longer than that,” he said.

Don’t you believe it. Hagestad plays at Deepdale Golf Club in Manhasset, and if any place has greens that can prepare a golfer for Augusta, it is Deepdale. The staff, membership and the course itself all helped him reach the Masters and beat the odds once he got here.

“He spends more time practicing than playing. He’s really determined, he works hard. So I’m happy to see it pay off,” said A.J. Ferraro, a Deepdale member who made the trip and walked all 18 with Hagestad on Friday.

Ferraro and an excited group of family members and friends saw him make birdies on the fourth and fifth holes, reaching even par and briefly coming within three strokes of the lead. They saw him turn a potential double-bogey 6 on No. 10 into a par with a twisting 25-foot putt. Hagestad saw that as the pivotal moment, snuffing out flashbacks of having missed seven cuts at the U.S. Amateur by incurring blips such as ill-timed double bogeys.

“There was a second there when I said, ‘Wait, this can’t be happening again. Come on,’ ” he said, mindful that no Mid-Am champion ever had made the cut here.

Credit an assist to Deepdale, a proven training ground that has drawn PGA Tour pros for putting lessons from director of golf Darrell Kestner, sent former assistant Matt Dobyns to two National Club Pro Championships and propeled recent assistant Ben Polland to the Web.com Tour.

Hagestad realized during his years at USC that he was not good enough for the PGA Tour, but he did not want to give up on a game he has played all his life (buddies from the junior circuit include Jordan Spieth, with whom he played a practice round this week).

His first boss in New York, Jeff Kelter, was a longstanding Deepdale member. “I went into his office and he basically sponsored me at Deepdale. It has been an amazing opportunity,” Hagestad said, citing help from Kestner and Polland. He added that fellow Deepdale member George Zahringer, who played in the 2003 Masters as U.S. Mid-Amateur champion, “has become a good friend.”

The transplanted Californian, now the reigning Met Amateur champion and Metropolitan Golf Association player of the year, became a sensation Friday at golf’s greatest showcase.

About the only thing less predictable was the fact that Ferraro covered the entire long course, up and down the steep hills.

“I actually broke my leg at the end of January and I had surgery Feb. 1. This is my first week without crutches. I only was planning to come down for the Monday practice round because I didn’t know how much I could walk,” he said, adding that he changed his return flight once he got here.

Pain be damned. “You don’t feel anything,” he said, “when you’re following your buddy playing in the Masters.”